Well, I guess we will see who is really in charge of the of the DoD ....... oh BTW ... Star and Stripes is just another NPR, VOA, MSM quality rag.... FTA: "Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will direct a military-wide stand down to address extremism within the ranks he told top military leaders in a meeting Wednesday, according to his top spokesman. Austin wants all military units to take an operational pause to discuss extremism as he works to grasp the full scope of the issue and better address the longstanding problem, John Kirby, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, told reporters Wednesday. The pauses are expected to occur within the next 60 days, but Austin has yet to determine how the stand downs are to be completed, Kirby said. “The intent is to reinforce the [Pentagon’s] policies and values with respect to this sort of behavior and to have a dialogue with the men and women of the force and to get their views on what they are seeing at their level,” Kirby said. “He wants commands to take the necessary time to ... speak with troops about the scope of this problem. It's a two-way conversation.” Austin spoke frankly with the acting service secretaries and uniformed service chiefs about his concerns about extremism in the military, including white supremacism, said Kirby, who attended the meeting. The new defense secretary, who is the first Black leader of the Defense Department, wants the service leaders to better grasp how pervasive the issue is within their formations and work with leaders to stamp it out, Kirby said. ..."